As Houston Independent School District (HISD) grapples with a significant number of uncertified teachers for the 2024-25 academic year, concerns are mounting about the quality of education students are receiving. According to district records obtained and reported by The Houston Chronicle, out of over 10,000 teachers, 2,097 do not have certification.
State-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles indicated that HISD's hiring approach has shifted since last year, with an inclination towards filling positions regardless of certification — a move that has introduced a larger number of uncertified educators into the system. "And then the notion that, well, you have to be a certified teacher to be effective," Miles said. "Yes, more likely than not you will be more effective than a teacher without a certification. Yes, that's true. But that doesn't mean in effect where non-certified teachers will be ineffective. We came in. We changed that concept." These statements were obtained by The Houston Chronicle.
Spearheading an investigation into the qualifications of HISD's uncertified staff, ABC13 KTRK revealed talent transitioning from various unrelated industries— including a former fast food worker now teaching reading and a barista who's stepped into a science teaching role. "They've totally lowered the standards and to me, what does that say for our children? If you're lowering the standards for the teachers, you're not giving our students the best," questioned Latricia Pierce, grandparent of a seventh-grade student, in a statement to ABC13 KTRK.
Despite these diverse backgrounds, HISD's Chief Human Resources Officer Jessica Neyman remains optimistic that cross-industry hires can positively impact the educational landscape. "They may have discovered teaching later in their career trajectory, but they oftentimes take the job extremely seriously and have quite frankly life experience that is really excellent for them to lean on as they are in the classrooms," Neyman told ABC13 KTRK.
The district's reliance on uncertified educators is not unique—across Texas, over 28% of new teacher hires were not certified last year, as reported by the Texas Education Agency. But, as a study by the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University points out, HISD's Black and Hispanic students may be the ones most at risk due to teacher qualifications, with performance and attendance rates tied to the educational background of their educators. "We found that in some ways, there were qualifications that seemed to make a huge difference for some populations. (English as a Second Language) and bilingual teachers definitely matter for students in schools where there's a lot of bilingual and ESL students. The same goes for special education," stated Dr. Gabriela Sanchez-Soto, a researcher who co-authored the Kinder study, in an interview with ABC13 KTRK.
The exact impact on student learning outcomes remains to be fully assessed, but the high rate of uncertified teacher turnover — three times that of certified teachers, according to a Texas Tech University report.
